Survival fight for doorstep loan giant Morses Club

Britain’s last major lender has warned it will not survive if it fails to implement a refinancing strategy initiated last month.

Morses Club proposed a £20m recovery plan for clients and financial restructuring, a so-called settlement.

It wants to draw a line under a flurry of claims for loans made over the past eight years that were believed to have a “potential for harm.”

Chief executive Gary Marshall said if the plan doesn’t work “there’s no business,” adding, “It’s that simple. It’s the end of the line. The scheme is the only way to keep the company going.’

Tightening of the market by regulators has already caused Morses’ biggest rival, Provident Financial, to close its doors on lending after 141 years in 2021.

But Marshall warned that the lack of regulated lenders would leave a dangerous void for more than 12 million Britons who “have no access to regular financial services”.

“Obviously with the economic crisis building up, we’re seeing more people coming into this range,” said Marshall, a former executive at Sainsbury’s Bank.

These people have limited options. But invariably, [after us] it is unregulated financing.

‘It could be someone at the school gate, someone in the pub, where the cost of borrowing can typically be 100 per cent a week – so if you borrow £20, you pay £20 a week in interest. From there, things quickly get pretty horrific.”